Case Study: How an Agency Fixed Their Finance Chaos
The situation:
A growing agency business was stuck between systems. Their accounting software was outdated, cluttered and maintained just quarterly, with their invoicing process relying heavily on manual checks and spreadsheet gymnastics. The founder was spending hours each week on "presentational manipulation" just to produce basic reports, and the finance function couldn't keep pace with the operational complexity of managing hundreds of service providers and clients.
What we did:
This was a complete finance transformation delivered in partnership with the client's internal team. We migrated the business from Sage to Xero, restructuring their chart of accounts to eliminate years of redundant coding. We imported 18 months of historical data, recategorised thousands of invoices to create proper revenue visibility, and rebuilt their bank reconciliation from scratch using actual bank statements (the previous system had deleted all outgoing payments from the feed).
Alongside the migration, we project-managed the development of an invoice automation system, working closely with the client's project manager and external consultant. The new system reads provider invoices, validates submissions automatically (replacing hours of manual checking), generates draft commission invoices in Xero and tracks payments with automated chasers. We also set up bank feeds with reconciliation rules, and created process documentation so the team could maintain everything going forward.
Throughout the project, we coordinated a structured handover from the previous bookkeeper, established proper accounts payable and expense processes, and trained core users on the new system. We flagged compliance issues that had been sitting unresolved (like the VAT registration), caught and queried mismatched receipts and overpayments, and made sure nothing fell through the cracks during the transition.
The outcome:
The business now has a finance function that actually works. Invoicing that used to take hours of manual validation now happens automatically with built-in checks. Financial data is clean, properly categorised, and ready for meaningful reporting instead of requiring constant clean-up. The founder can see which services drive revenue, track cash flow in real time, and make decisions based on trustworthy numbers. Most importantly, the operational team has documentation, training, and systems they can confidently maintain without needing constant external support. The finance function went from being a bottleneck to being an asset.
